Ginjj, there are so many opinions and variations on how to maintain and use a sourdough starter, no wonder you are confused. Some people make a simple process difficult.

It really isn't difficult to maintain and use a starter.

I maintain a 12 ounce starter in the fridge. Once the starter is developed it just needs to be taken out of the fridge once a week and fed. To feed, I measure out 6 oz of starter and feed it with three ounces of flour (rye or a combination of white /rye) and three ounces of water.

I use 100 grams of the discard in a batch of bread. In the past I would use the discard to make a preferment. But I stopped doing that recently and I just add the 100g of discard to 750g of flour, and 510 g of water (approximately 68% hydration) and 20 to 22 g of salt.

I know that some recipes call for a cup or more of starter. But this is not necessary.

Mix by hand using the autolyze, stretch and fold method and leave until almost tripled. Bread can be baked the same day or if you like a more developed sourdough flavour, instead of leaving the dough out to double, put it in the fridge for a few days for a longer cold fermentation. Before using, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature and start to rise again before shaping and proofing.

This batch was made same day with just the 100g of starter.

NOTE:I sometimes let my starter go for a month or more without feeding. In that case, before using again, I will take it out of the fridge and feed it once, usually at night, and leave it out to double. Then in the morning, I feed it one more time, using 100g of the of the discard in a batch of dough. The starter goes back into the fridge after it has doubled.

Ginjj,

Unless you're baking daily, you will have too much starter. It's normal. That's where the discard comes in. It's much easier if you have a scale, and can weigh how much starter to keep, but you can do it by volume. There are different kinds of starter though, with different amounts of water. I keep one wheat that's equal weight of flour and water, and one that's much drier, plus a rye starter which has double as much water as flour.

Here are the proportions for the middle version, "100% hydration" (in baker's percentages, the weight of flour is 100%, and the weight of any other ingredient is compared to that).

100 g starter
50 g flour
50 g water

That is, you're feeding the starter with an equal weight to it of half flour and half water. You can scale this proportion to fit an amount of starter. If you want to feed it up to use a lot, weigh your total amount of starter, divide by two and feed that much flour and water.

By volume: This is less accurate, which wouldn't be an issue for someone who bakes daily, but could affect a picky recipe if you don't know how to adjust it. It'll do if you don't have a scale. Water weighs about twice as much as flour, but with it all soaked up the starter volume equals the volume of the two parts individually.

1 cup degassed (punch it down if it has risen) starter
1 cup sifted (aerated) flour
1/2 cup water

You can scale that down--I thought it would be easier to see the proportions if there were fewer fractions.

When I started with sourdough last year, I also started looking for things to do with leftover starter. I keep a big jar of leftover white and wheat starter discard, of both hydrations, in the fridge. It keeps. I don't feed it except with new starter. It makes great waffles, pancakes and biscuits. The trick is that it's acidic by nature and rises very nicely with baking soda. It exhausts quickly, though, so if you don't want to be watching for when it's just rising enough to getting them all made in a hurry, you can add some heat acting (or double acting) baking powder as a backup. You can also use discard in your bread just as that proportion of flour and water, but previous rises affect the gluten and has a different texture due to complete absorption, so a handful is fine, but a whole lot won't work well.

Thanks Ann for your advice. It's always great to hear from you. One more question please - when you take your starter out of the frig do you only feed it once before putting into a recipe? I thought they had to be fed several times to get it active enough.

Pllog thank you for your information as well. One question for you is how long can we leave leftover starter in the frig for pancakes? I had some for a month and decided to throw it away but maybe I didn't need to. It smelled fine.

In the first six months I found my starters were more delicate. After that, they've been surprisingly hardy. Now that they're more mature, I've left them in the fridge for many weeks unfed, and it only took a couple of feedings at room temperature to make them all happy again. I totally get Ann's point about one starter, but I don't want to have to plan many days out, so I keep a whole wheat and white at 100% hydration, ww and white levain starter at 45% (or whatever it is...I think it's 45), and the rye starter at 200%. Then I don't have to fuss with the math, and can just feed and go. I agree with Ann, btw, that a mature starter can be used after one feeding, though it helps to do a pre-ferment (biga or levain).

When my discard jar gets low, I'll clean it out on general principles (never use soap in the washing, though, so as not to have residue). It helps to keep the jar full, though, as air isn't your friend. I find it lasts very well for months and just keep adding and taking away. If it throws hooch (grey alcohol), I either pour it off or stir it in. If the top layer looks very grey (from air exposure and die off), I'll scrape it off and use the pristine discard below. It's acid by nature, so pretty stable. I'm not one who gets weirded out by storing food, however. If it's not spoiled it's not spoiled. And the waffles are the best I've ever made.

" If it's not spoiled it's not spoiled"....Love that!!! My daughter says "but MOOOM how long has that been in there?"....speaking of things like butter milk and un opened jars of jam, frozen meat and veggie bits for soup, as well as starter.
Going to copy and paste this discourse......and file it under "starter" in my recipes file....so if I ask for it again, remind me where I stowed it!

Don't get discouraged. Being a dough-head, (pun not intended), i glossed over what 'discard' meant until a few weeks ago. (duh)

I followed a simple one. No long descriptions or many words. This one...I needed a five yr old hand holding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuU0xmqEZyI

I'm 'getting' it now. Just transferred jars. Lid should be loose. The one i started is the clean empty one without the rubber gasket. I just use a rubber band for the marking line.

Once you get a good start, all you have read falls into place and starts to make sense.

Thanks for the kind words sleevendog, it does get frustrating. I enjoyed the video you sent; couldn't believe how he works with his hands, I thought we needed to be careful to keep things clean. Here's another video that shows one guys very casual approach which seems to work for him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QXN9jiqzWw

Ginjj, you're right about the cleanliness. It's not that a guy's clean hands will hurt the starter, per se, but every time you feed your starter, especially if you're using whole grain and tap water, you're introducing new micro-organisms that your good yeast have to conquer and kill. Adding more from hands just makes it work all that much harder. If you keep that down, it leaves your good yeasts to munch away happily, reproduce and burp themselves silly.

If you're making a new starter, and get to the "smelly fish" stage, it's where (so I've read) that the unwanted interlopers are dying en masse. It goes away with another few feedings. Yes, starter is war, but the victor is just a hair less than always the baking yeast.

Good point. I'm using bottled water and we use reverse-osmosis filtered back home. I did use my 'clean' finger as he did in the video i followed. And was pleased when he changed and cleaned his jar. (any soap residue could cause trouble as well). So far so good with mine. I never did get an off smell this time and did once pour off some of the liquid before feeding.

I've gone through the process of starting a "starter" twice over the last 8 or 9 years.

The first one I kept going for a couple of years but neglected when we moved. I started the second one January 2014. I used organic rye and spring water to start and I continue to feed using spring water.

I still use organic rye to feed, but I also feed with my regular bread flour. I keep the starters in plastic containers with lids. Never went through a "smelly fish" stage. When I haven't fed the starter in more than two weeks it does develop "hooch" which I pour off before giving it a good stir and feeding again.

If fed once a week, my starter will double usually in about five hours. If I haven't feed it for a while it might take closer to eight.

As I think I mentioned above, I do not need to make a preferment (Biga) the starter is strong enough to add directly to a batch of dough.

~Ann

Good point, Ann. Rye has more of the right yeast, I think. For sure it's easier to start, and bubbles best. Mine is so loose but also didn't do the smelly thing. The whole wheat sure did!

BTW, the drier starters endure long term storage better, and are livelier when revived, but they can take more fussing when you do.

Also, I notice that I said I had 100% hydration starters up topic. That's the way I think of them, but they ended up being too wet and I reduced it. My whole wheat is at 80% and the white is at 70%. In baking, I use them as if they were 100% and they seem to work right. We're talking about approx. 1 tsp. water difference in use which is lost in the handling.